S-P-A-C-E for Recs

As a testing psychologist, you may feel stuck between being research-based and affirming when writing recommendations. 

While we want our recommendations to be guided by research, too often this advice is based on changing the child and “fixing” their deficits. Yet as affirming psychologists, our goals are not to fix the child, but empower their unique brain.

Fortunately, affirming and research-based can be aligned. Here’s how I navigate this tricky landscape

SPACE to Thrive

In my experience, neurodiversity-affirming recommendations include 5 important components:

  • Strengths: Building on strengths and interests in meaningful ways

  • Purpose: Personally meaningful to the client

  • Agency: Focusing on self advocacy and all forms of communication

  • Culture: Valuing differences in culture and lived experience

  • Environment: Changing the environment to support how the client’s brain works best

 

Using this framework, we can develop recommendations that are both grounded in research and truly empowering for each client

Consider a child who struggles with writing and attention. One common recommendation might be:

  • Offer immediate and frequent feedback to ensure the child is on task when writing.

To ensure this recommendation is neurodiversity-affirming, we can incorporate the SPACE model as follows:

Strengths

First, affirming recommendations are strengths-based, incorporating what the client does well.

For example, instead of “offering frequent feedback” this may sound like:

“Given the child’s verbal strengths, provide frequent check-ins where they can verbally articulate each next step of the writing process.”

Using recommendations with specific examples of how to engage a child’s strengths helps adults visualize what it might look like to implement our advice.

Purpose

Second, the recommendation should have purpose. In other words, it should be personally meaningful to the client.

For example, why is improving writing important to the child? In this example, the child has shared that writing is very tiring.

If we add purpose to the recommendation for a child’s whose attention is easily fatigued, this may sound like:

“To help make writing less tiring, break the process into small, achievable steps.”

Agency

Next, neurodiversity-affirming recommendations ensure the child has agency and choice, valuing their communication in whatever form it takes.

For example, when we add this to our writing recommendation, it may sound like:

“Collaboratively with the child, set a goal before beginning each writing assignment.”

Culture & Lived Experience

Neurodiversity-affirming recommendations also take into account the child’s cultural context and lived experience. This means that recommendations should be personalized for the client.

When we add cultural considerations to our writing recommendation, it may sound like:

“Given the child’s bilingual background, allow them to brainstorm ideas in any language to help the ideas flow.”

Environmental Changes

Finally, neurodiversity-affirming practice recognizes that while the client may need to learn new skills, we – as parents, partners, educators, and therapists – also need to meet them where they are. 

This means making changes to the environment to help it become a better fit for their brain.

For example, for our writing recommendation, we may add:

“Provide environmental support during writing such as a standing desk to allow for movement and preferred writing instruments for comfort.”

When we put these all together, our recommendation may sound like:

“Before each writing task, work with your child to set a clear goal and check in regularly so they can talk through their ideas and identify the next step, building on their verbal strengths. To make writing feel less tiring, give feedback in small steps, allow brainstorming in either language, and provide supports such as a standing desk and preferred writing tools.”

By incorporating Strengths, Purpose, Agency, Culture, and Environment into our recommendations, we can achieve this balance between rooting our recommendations in research and moving forward towards a more affirming world.

Build Your Affirming Bank

If you’re looking for more tools to efficiently and easily write research-based, affirming recommendations, join us for the Affirming Recommendations workshop on Friday, 5/8 at 8am PT/11am ET.
Learn More Here

Early bird discount until 4/25/26

After this workshop, you’ll take away…

  • A comprehensive framework for writing actionable, affirming recommendations

  • Tools to personalize your plan for each client

  • An empowering recommendations bank for ADHD, Autism, Learning disabilities, mood disorders and more

  • 3 APA-approved CEs

 

The workshop will be on Zoom and recorded for those who cannot attend live.

I look forward to seeing you there!